Record Yields Leading to Storage Crunch

A bin-busting harvest is doing just that, according to a new report by CoBank. The cooperative bank says this year’s yields have created a storage capacity crunch at U.S. elevators and are contributing to a brighter economic outlook for elevator operators. Record yields of corn, soybeans and grain sorghum are competing for storage space with large wheat inventories harvested earlier this season. At the same time, futures markets are also encouraging farmers to store crops well into next year. Cobank says that means the value of grain storage space is on the rise, and storage shortages have been widely reported across the Western Corn Belt, and Central and Southern Plains regions. The report notes that storage tightness could persist through 2017, given the U.S. Agriculture Department is predicting the highest wheat and corn ending stocks total since the 1987-88 marketing year.